Let’s get back to the story of the Arborist. I hope you have enjoyed this story so far. Thinking back, I must admit, it was a pretty dumb thing for me to do. Admittedly, I had been a poor neighbor.
Do you remember I mentioned my boyfriend was busy the day all this tree trimming was going on?
Yes? Great.
He called the house later that night to see how it went. He sounded very apprehensive when he called as if he sensed something had not gone well. I explained what happened, chuckled about it, and all I could hear on the other end of the phone was a big sigh and “oh gees.” I’m sure there was some head shaking when he hung up the phone as well. I can still see his face and hear his voice.
To my surprise, he offered to rent a chipper so together we could throw the branches into the chipper and make our own mulch for around the house and in the flower beds. If we kept it far enough away from the house, we would avoid a termite problem—termites like fresh-cut wood, especially when it gets wet.
Chipper time.
The following weekend, we rented a chipper. I have to tell you something – if you’re not careful, that machine will suck you before you know what hit you.
We fed each tree limb in carefully. It was hard and tiring work, and we just knew our neighbor behind us was thrilled with all the noise. More cutting, more carelessness, oh boy!
The unhappy neighbor decided she would make waves over the electricity snafu and enlisted her son as the power to be. They harassed my poor neighbor about his tree trimming. What was supposed to be a prosperous, easy day, no drama turned out to be a few weeks of neighbor wars with me stuck in the middle and feeling bad for the neighbor who risked his life to cut my tree down.
Still unhappy.
After all, my house backed up to hers. My tree trimming neighbor even called the local radio talk show and told them what happened. Of course, they chuckled, but they advised him to go over to her house again and apologize. They even told him to carry an apple pie over there as a peace offering. Well, he did, but it fell flat and was of no gain.
The neighbor stayed mad until the tree trimming days were done.
But the problem remained even after getting all the limbs cleaned up and chipped. I still had the gigantic stump, about 50 feet or so tall, with no limbs on it. It looked ridiculous.
I still had one full tree.
My grand plan had not quite come to fruition. My boyfriend was thrilled with a tall stump in the backyard. He could mow around it, hang stuff on it and call it names. It didn’t matter to him, but I lived there, I owned it, and the giant stump had to come down!
Do you see where I’m headed here?
Proverbs 10:14, “Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.”
Lord, may we store up knowledge and use it to bring glory to you each day. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.
Blessings from the chipper.
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